In referring to Professor Harold Bloom’s quote, “I have learned that the purpose of teaching is to bring the student to his or her sense of his or her own presence,” this means to me that I need to help my students discover their worth in this world - starting in my classroom. I would do things to show each of my students how much they are valued and matter, like hanging their pictures on the walls, having them help brainstorm ideas for classroom themes for the bulletin boards, and hanging their artwork up. I will make sure each student has a classroom job that is adaptable to them so they feel they are of service to the classroom community. I will help students find positive words to describe themselves and help build them up, as well as say daily affirmations during morning meeting. I believe that everyone, no matter their abilities, has a purpose in this world, and I think that with the right help and method, anyone is able to achieve what they set their mind to. Throughout my entire life, from a few weeks old until now, many of my friends have had Down syndrome, autism, and other disabilities, but that didn't matter to me. I wanted to play with them; I wanted to be partners with them in group projects; I wanted to help them with their work. Watching them succeed only inspired me to continue helping them and embracing the truest of friendships I had. From a very young age, my family has always seen how I light up when I hang out with my friends who are unique. When there is an opportunity to help or work in the special education field, they always encourage me to take the first step and reach out to help. Since middle school, I have been volunteering in my school district’s life skills/multiple disabilities classrooms, and it has easily become one of the most important elements of my life. I helped in their gym classes and Special Olympics practices and hung out with them during my study halls - building relationships. It was then that I realized how truly passionate I was for individuals with disabilities and how much I wanted to become a special education teacher. When Covid hit, I lost a year of helping in the special needs communities, and I missed it so much. No matter what I filled my time with, nothing truly fulfilled me the way volunteering did. In the spring semester of 2021, I reached out to help in the autistic support classroom. It felt so energizing and fulfilling to be back. The following year, I was a teachers’ aide for the adapted gym class and went back to the local elementary school’s multiple disabilities classroom. I continued volunteering in the elementary classroom over the summer and the next school year... and the next. Working with students one-on-one, I got to learn about who they were and how I could help them academically and socially. I learned more and more about inclusion and how to be inclusive for each and every one of the students. I have been a member of Best Buddies every year in high school. A couple years ago, my buddy became my best friend. She carries around a talker and uses some sign language to communicate. I brought her to multiple dances as my "date." At one dance, she was looking for someone and kept trying to ask people for help; they didn’t understand her and some gave her weird looks. I interpreted for her and didn’t care what people thought. She has taught me so much and makes me want to show others what people with disabilities CAN do, not what they can't. It is important to me to enlighten people about disabilities. I created a website about various disabilities, common and rare, with the help of a slideshow I created during lockdown. I spent countless hours researching information, formatting it, finding pictures and videos, and recording myself reading every page so that it is accessible to everyone. Although it may impact a small portion of the world, my dream is to have my own multiple disabilities classroom in an elementary school and to make a big impact for my students, their families, and the other students in the school - hopefully, inspiring them to see and include my students like any other friends. In my future classroom, I aim to build strong, positive relationships with my students and co-workers, but most importantly have experiences that many of these students wouldn’t usually get based on how society views disabilities. I hope to take my students on accessible field trips and do so much more. I want to be the change in others’ worlds. I want to be the person who does not give up on them. I want to advocate for individuals with disabilities to have endless opportunities when supported in the right way. It is inspiring watching these individuals grow and conquer challenges, and I couldn’t dream of doing anything different in my life.

From a very young age, my best friend had Down syndrome. We did practically everything together - had sleepovers, played imaginative games, read stories, watched movies - you name it, and we most likely did it together. Because of our friendship, I met and became friends with a lot of peers in elementary school with varying disabilities. By the end of elementary school, I would seek out my peers with differences to be partners with, eat lunch with, and play outside at recess. In seventh grade, I was helping in the adapted physical education class and discovered that I have a real passion for helping, teaching, and caring for individuals with disabilities. Whenever I see or meet someone with a disability, visible or not, something inside of me screams, “you have to get to know them.” And I do just that. In middle school, my lunch table consisted of me and at least five individuals with varying disabilities. We were just friends doing friend things, while working on independence. I consistently went to the multiple disabilities classroom to hang out, play with students during free time, help train the athletes for the Special Olympics, and more. During high school, I had numerous opportunities and experiences with individuals with more complex and multiple-disabilities. Throughout my sophomore, junior, and senior years and the summers in between, I went to the local elementary school’s multiple disabilities classroom numerous days a week to help. I worked with students one-on-one. I got to learn about who they were and how I could help them academically and socially. The students and teachers looked forward to my time with them, and the teachers came to rely on me as someone who knew the students and could meet their needs. The students got very excited to see me and enjoyed when I read stories, sang songs, played games, and joined them at recess. I learned more and more about inclusion and how to be inclusive for each and every one of the students. It helped me realize how important it is to have people truly accept you for who you are. I was recently diagnosed with autism, so friendships have never been easy, but I am fully accepted in this community, and I value that as much as they value my help. In the spring semester of my freshman year in high school, I helped out in the autistic support classroom. During my sophomore and senior years, I was a teacher’s assistant for an adapted physical education class. I got to know one student particularly well and always looked forward to seeing him in class; he was such a blast to work out with. He has autism and is nonverbal, but that doesn’t stop him. He knows what he wants and knows how to get his point across. We worked out together, often on the elliptical, and I got to know his signs and verbal cues. Last year, I was his buddy at Night to Shine, a prom experience for individuals with special needs. We had such a great time singing karaoke and dancing the night away. One of my first cooking classes had a student with autism and another who was blind; I was so excited to be in a group with them. We got special cooking equipment with braille so my friend who was blind could experience the same independence as everyone else. We had to take our time and communicate clearly with each other so everyone understood exactly what to do. We had such a good time cooking together. During my junior and senior years, I had the opportunity to be a teacher’s assistant in an adapted art class. I learned how to meet each student at their level and how to appropriately work with them to make various projects fun and doable. I learned how to create my own lesson plan and how to manage time by teaching it. This experience showed me glimpses into my future as a teacher, specifically special education. As a non-artistic person, I was quite nervous for this, but it ended up having an incredibly large impact on me. I was welcomed into the class with open arms and feel that the students and teacher all appreciated my contribution to the class. In my senior year, I started an Inclusivity Committee of which I was the president. I ran each meeting - encouraging and educating my peers on how to interact with individuals with disabilities and helping to plan activities that we did with special education classrooms at our high school. We had lunch with some of these students, baked cookies, and had what seemed to be the most enjoyed activity… dance parties. My best friend was born with SATB2-Associated Syndrome. Individuals with this syndrome can have developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, and limited speech. None of this stops her, though. She uses an app on her iPad, sign language, and gestures to communicate. I brought her to multiple dances as my "date" because I thought it would be fun and also because I wanted to give her that experience. At one dance, she was looking for someone and kept trying to ask people for help but they didn’t understand her and some gave her weird looks. I interpreted for her and didn’t care what people thought. Last year, she was my partner on our school’s unified bocce team. I love spending time with her and find it very important to make time to do so. While I learned a lot and enjoyed helping in all of these experiences, I am so proud of the positive impact I have made in the lives of my friends and students. I know that my efforts are valued by them, their parents, and the teachers and staff. I have helped them learn and grow and have experiences that they might not have necessarily had, and I am so happy I got to be a part of their lives and them part of mine.

I am going to college to earn my Bachelor's degree in Special Education/Early Childhood and a minor in Deaf Studies. I am currently a freshman, and for the past six years, I have been dreaming of becoming a special education teacher. I have gotten so much experience in this field through many hundreds of hours of community service and work in all different aspects: autistic support, multiple disabilities/life skills, and learning support at elementary, middle, and high school levels. In addition to my coursework, I participate in clubs that relate to my academic path. I served as the Best Buddies Friendship Coordinator last semester and will continue that role next semester as well as being the vice president for the Sign Language club. For the longest time, I loved going to school and often didn’t want to leave during summer or holiday breaks. But my mental health started to decline when I entered middle school. I was constantly anxious about friendships and how I was doing academically. In sixth grade, I started to see a therapist - the first of many. I was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety. I constantly wrote lists of what needed to be done and made sure my room was spotless. I also discovered I had a learning difference during these years. As the coursework got more challenging, I grew more and more frustrated with myself in classes that required reading and writing. In summer 2020, just before high school, I started to experience anxiety and panic attacks. I could barely hear my peers bring up school without being sent into a spiral of emotions. I really struggled that first year back in-person at school. I refused to take my mask off inside the building for fear of getting Covid, so I ate outside the entire year - through sunshine, snow, and rain. Whenever I had hard assignments or tests, I often found myself in the bathroom having an anxiety attack.. I have always strived for As on report cards, and so far, I have succeeded at this. This may sound like a good thing, but I get paralyzed sometimes with anxiety over getting perfect scores. My anxiety forces me to study nonstop until I can’t think of any other way to study, so instead of doing things I enjoy, I’m stuck for weeks studying like crazy. My anxiety also prevents me from turning in most of my assignments by myself. I fear so much getting something wrong that I feel like I have to run it by someone: a professor, my mom, a tutor, or a friend. I want to trust myself, but my brain prevents me from doing so. When it comes to my personal life, my mental health interferes heavily with friendships. I stress so much about whether I am saying the correct thing or if I offended or hurt someone that my brain constantly needs reassurance that everything is okay, but then I worry if that annoys them. This past year, my mental health was all over the place. I had random breakdowns at the end of my senior year, including at graduation. I was so scared and anxious to move on from what I had known. I was overwhelmingly worried about my existing friendships, being on my own, not making friends, being without my family, and if I was going to be able to handle my course load. I successfully made it through my first semester with all As and have made two wonderful friends. Mental health impacts me in many ways, but I am succeeding in spite of the challenges.

For the longest time, I loved going to school and often didn’t want to leave during summer or holiday breaks. But my mental health started to decline when I entered middle school. I was constantly anxious about friendships and how I was doing academically. In sixth grade, I started to see a therapist - the first of many. I was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety. I constantly wrote lists of what needed to be done and made sure my room was spotless. I also discovered I had a learning difference during these years. As the coursework got more challenging, I grew more and more frustrated with myself in classes that required reading and writing. In summer 2020, just before high school, I started to experience anxiety and panic attacks. I could barely hear my peers bring up school without being sent into a spiral of emotions. I really struggled that first year back in-person at school. I refused to take my mask off inside the building for fear of getting Covid, so I ate outside the entire year - through sunshine, snow, and rain. Whenever I had hard assignments or tests, I often found myself in the bathroom having an anxiety attack. I have always strived for As on report cards, and so far, I have succeeded at this. This may sound like a good thing, but I get paralyzed sometimes with anxiety over getting perfect scores. My anxiety forces me to study nonstop until I can’t think of any other way to study, so instead of doing things I enjoy, I’m stuck for weeks studying like crazy. My anxiety also prevents me from turning in most of my assignments by myself. I fear so much getting something wrong that I feel like I have to run it by someone: a professor, my mom, a tutor, or a friend. I want to trust myself, but my brain prevents me from doing so. When it comes to my personal life, my mental health interferes heavily with friendships. I stress so much about whether I am saying the correct thing or if I offended or hurt someone that my brain constantly needs reassurance that everything is okay, but then I worry if that annoys them. This past year, my mental health was all over the place. I had random breakdowns at the end of my senior year, including at graduation. I was so scared and anxious to move on from what I had known. I was overwhelmingly worried about my existing friendships, being on my own, not making friends, being without my family, and if I was going to be able to handle my course load. Over the past couple years, I have been learning how to make my mental health a priority. I see a therapist every other week and finally found someone who I connected with and feel comfortable opening up to. I also receive disability services through my college, which are quite helpful. The biggest thing I do to help my mental health is spend time with friends. I attend four clubs on campus; I get to do things I really enjoy and hang out with people with similar interests. I have two awesome friends who I love spending time with. We make sure we carve out time to watch movies, go on walks, play a ton of games, and try to make it to the gym once a week. I also go to the campus pool to swim out my anxiety. Mental health impacts me in many ways, but I am succeeding in spite of the challenges.

In referring to Professor Harold Bloom’s quote, “I have learned that the purpose of teaching is to bring the student to his or her sense of his or her own presence,” this means to me that I need to help my students discover their worth in this world - starting in my classroom. I would do things to show each of my students how much they are valued and matter, like hanging their pictures on the walls, having them help brainstorm ideas for classroom themes for the bulletin boards, and hanging their artwork up. I will make sure each student has a classroom job that is adaptable to them so they feel they are of service to the classroom community. I will help students find positive words to describe themselves and help build them up, as well as say daily affirmations during morning meeting. I believe that everyone, no matter their abilities, has a purpose in this world, and I think that with the right help and method, anyone is able to achieve what they set their mind to. Throughout my entire life, from a few weeks old until now, many of my friends have had Down syndrome, autism, and other disabilities, but that didn't matter to me. I wanted to play with them; I wanted to be partners with them in group projects; I wanted to help them with their work. Watching them succeed only inspired me to continue helping them and embracing the truest of friendships I had. From a very young age, my family has always seen how I light up when I hang out with my friends who are unique. When there is an opportunity to help or work in the special education field, they always encourage me to take the first step and reach out to help. Since middle school, I have been volunteering in my school district’s life skills/multiple disabilities classrooms, and it has easily become one of the most important elements of my life. I helped in their gym classes and Special Olympics practices and hung out with them during my study halls - building relationships. It was then that I realized how truly passionate I was for individuals with disabilities and how much I wanted to become a special education teacher. When Covid hit, I lost a year of helping in the special needs communities, and I missed it so much. No matter what I filled my time with, nothing truly fulfilled me the way volunteering did. In the spring semester of 2021, I reached out to help in the autistic support classroom. It felt so energizing and fulfilling to be back. The following year, I was a teachers’ aide for the adapted gym class and went back to the local elementary school’s multiple disabilities classroom. I continued volunteering in the elementary classroom over the summer and the next school year... and the next. Working with students one-on-one, I got to learn about who they were and how I could help them academically and socially. I learned more and more about inclusion and how to be inclusive for each and every one of the students. I have been a member of Best Buddies every year in high school. A couple years ago, my buddy became my best friend. She carries around a talker and uses some sign language to communicate. I brought her to multiple dances as my "date." At one dance, she was looking for someone and kept trying to ask people for help; they didn’t understand her and some gave her weird looks. I interpreted for her and didn’t care what people thought. She has taught me so much and makes me want to show others what people with disabilities CAN do, not what they can't. It is important to me to enlighten people about disabilities. I created a website about various disabilities, common and rare, with the help of a slideshow I created during lockdown. I spent countless hours researching information, formatting it, finding pictures and videos, and recording myself reading every page so that it is accessible to everyone. Although it may impact a small portion of the world, my dream is to have my own multiple disabilities classroom in an elementary school and to make a big impact for my students, their families, and the other students in the school - hopefully, inspiring them to see and include my students like any other friends. In my future classroom, I aim to build strong, positive relationships with my students and co-workers, but most importantly have experiences that many of these students wouldn’t usually get based on how society views disabilities. I hope to take my students on accessible field trips and do so much more. I want to be the change in others’ worlds. I want to be the person who does not give up on them. I want to advocate for individuals with disabilities to have endless opportunities when supported in the right way. It is inspiring watching these individuals grow and conquer challenges, and I couldn’t dream of doing anything different in my life.

Over the past several years, I have done over 1,000 hours of community service. I coached Special Olympics as a peer in middle school and am a bowling and swimming coach for Special Olympics of Pennsylvania. I teach swim lessons and water safety at my local YMCA to individuals of all ages: infants through adults and individuals with disabilities. When I started at my local YMCA, the adapted lesson program had lapsed due to covid. And much to my joy and the families I worked with, I got to teach adapted swim lessons for over a year to many unique individuals. I have been a teacher’s assistant in a learning support math class, an adapted physical education class, and an adapted art class - where I helped the teacher grade papers, answered student questions, assisted with projects, and was a positive role model, motivator, and friend for students when trying new things. I helped found the State High Sign Language Club and was secretary for two years. I helped create and taught some Deaf culture components. I started an Inclusivity Committee at Delta High. I was the president and ran each meeting, educated my peers on how to interact with individuals with disabilities, and helped plan activities and lunches that we did with various special education classrooms. One of my most significant mentors over the past several years has been an elementary multiple disabilities teacher named Courtney Scheuchenzuber. In that school, I established one-to-one relationships with the students and staff and helped create an inclusive environment. I read stories, sang, watched/assisted them with coloring, played at recess, attended specials, stretched, exercised, helped them read, cut things out for projects, assisted with eating, and talked and played with them. None of these experiences would have been possible without Courtney. She opened up her room and allowed me to get to know each of her students through play and work. She taught me why she did some of the things she did, taught me how to handle certain situations, and most importantly, I got to see what a truly inclusive and loving environment was like. This past summer, I was hired as a paraprofessional for my school district, and I hope to sub for the paras in her room - to help her out and express my gratitude for letting me volunteer for so many years. I love learning about people and appreciate them for who they are, and I also love learning about various disabilities and ways to help individuals who experience different challenges. For the general population, I will continue to work on the inclusive website I am making about numerous disabilities. As for my future students, I want to be the change in their worlds and be the person who doesn’t give up on them. I want to advocate for myself and other individuals with disabilities to have endless opportunities when supported in the right way. It is inspiring watching these individuals grow and conquer challenges, and I couldn’t dream of doing anything different in my life.

I have always had a very difficult time reading more than a handful of pages and remembering what I was reading and completing reading and writing assignments by myself - especially summarizing text and putting it into my own words. Major school assignments revolving around my understanding of text resulted in me forcing my mom to sit down and read it to/with me. She would then help me comprehend the text. This resulted in a dread for reading. I hated having to sit - being forced to read. It took so much effort and energy out of me. During and following the pandemic lockdowns, I was still succeeding academically, but my anxiety was really taking a toll. When I am anxious, uncomfortable, or exhausted, I can have difficulty talking. It is hard to explain, but it feels almost impossible. I cannot formulate words to get them out. I also have difficulty with eye contact with people who make me uncomfortable or when I am anxious. I began to suspect I might have autism, so last year, I reached out to my psychiatrist and my parents, and we got further testing done. I was diagnosed with autism. I am learning to speak up for myself - asking my teachers for more help and getting the accommodations I need now and for college. I am starting to thrive. Since middle school, I’ve known that I wanted to go into special education. I have been volunteering and helping in special education settings as much as I can. Because there aren't any classes in my high school to teach you how to be a special education teacher, I've had to seek out and create opportunities to do that on my own. While I have been fortunate enough to have found a lot of wonderful experiences in and around my school district, I am looking forward to having classes and experiences designed to help me pursue my dream. I am going to college to acquire a bachelor's degree in Special Education with a minor in Deaf Studies/American Sign Language. I hope to become fluent in ASL. I plan to be involved in Best Buddies, Sign Language Club, Special Olympics, Council for Exceptional Children, Student PA State Education Association, Delta Alpha Pi, and more. My dream career is to teach in an elementary multiple disabilities classroom. It is important to me to enlighten people about disabilities but even more so, to educate those with disabilities. I want to be the change in other's worlds. I want to be the person that does not give up on them. I want to be the person who gives them endless opportunities to find what they truly enjoy. It is inspiring watching these individuals grow and conquer challenges, and I am excited to get my degree and make this my life’s work. I will be attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania where they have a program, The Labyrinth, for individuals on the autism spectrum. I will be participating in this program, however, it is an additional expense on top of regular college expenses. My dad is self-employed, and my mom works at Penn State. My brother is also in college. They cannot help me pay for college further than the small amount that is in my college fund, so I will be relying on scholarships, grants, and hopefully, not many loans. I hope to not be in major debt when I graduate as teachers do not get paid much, and that is my chosen career path.

Since middle school, I have been volunteering in my school district's life skills/multiple disabilities classrooms, and it has easily become one of the most important elements of my life. I helped in their gym classes and Special Olympics practices and hung out with the students during my study halls - building relationships. Then March of 2020 came around… Covid-19. I lost a year of helping in the special needs communities, and I missed it so much. I realized how important my volunteer experiences are to me and how much they had changed me as a person. In the spring semester of my freshman year, I reached out to the autistic support classroom to see if I could help for the remainder of the year. It felt so energizing and fulfilling to be back. The following year, I was a teachers’ aide for the adapted gym class and went back to the local elementary school’s multiple disabilities classroom. I continued this volunteer experience in the elementary classroom over the summer and the next school year... and the next. I worked with students one-on-one. I got to learn about who they were and how I could help them academically and socially. I learned more and more about inclusion and how to be inclusive for each and every one of the students. It helped me realize how important it is to have people truly accept you for who you are. Last year, I created a website about various disabilities, common and rare, for my community project. I spent countless hours researching information, formatting it, finding pictures and videos to spice up the look, and recording myself reading every page so that it was accessible to everyone. I want to keep informing others and normalizing disabilities, so I plan to continue adding to this website and making it accessible for anyone who is curious or wants to learn about unique syndromes. My best friend has a rare disorder known as SATB2 Associate Syndrome. This makes her very unique. She carries around a talker and uses some sign language to communicate. I brought her to multiple dances as my "date" because I thought it would be fun and also because I wanted to give her that experience. I love spending time with her and giving her “typical” teenage experiences. Although it may impact a small portion of the world, my dream is to have my own multiple disabilities classroom in an elementary school and to make a big impact for my students, their families, and the other students in the school - hopefully, inspiring them to see and include my students like any other friends. In my future classroom, I aim to build strong, positive relationships with my students and co-workers, but most importantly have experiences that many of these students wouldn’t usually get based on how society views disabilities. I hope to take my students on accessible field trips and do so much more. I want to be the change in others’ worlds. I want to be the person who does not give up on them. I want to advocate for individuals with disabilities to have endless opportunities when supported in the right way. It is inspiring watching these individuals grow and conquer challenges, and I couldn’t dream of doing anything different in my life.